Pylons around the UK

Having seen my site, Ian McAulay of
Envision shared some of his collection of pylon photos with me.
They are mainly of the UK, so I did not want to use them all in my
pylon photos pages, because my focus is on "pylons around the world".
However, they are excellent and need to be seen, so they are aired
on a page of their own. The full size images are great and we are
very privileged that Ian shared his photos!

With many thanks to Ian McAulay, who took all of these photos
except the one in the USA (taken by Roger Sidaway) and who
supplied the descriptions.

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L6 (left) and L12 (right) 400kV towers near Ormiston, East Lothian. Both have equivalent carrying capacity. Shows how
much slimmer a tower could be with computer based design in 1980 than in 1960.

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Single circuit 132kV PL1b series S10S tower near Dalmellington, Ayrshire. Most of the grey paint has peeled to reveal red oxide primer, making an impromptu camouflage pattern.

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Single circuit 275kV towers near Tuxford, Notts. There are 2 lines of these crossing the A1 near here - believed to be only 275kV single circuit in England. These are known as 'cat's head' towers - you can see the outline of a cat's head in the angle towers with the ears forming the earth peaks.

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132kV PL1b series towers near Kirknewton, West Lothian. Early tower designs were made to take a small deviation even in the case of suspension towers. This is the only double circuit example I know which actually takes advantage of that. D2 suspension tower on the left, D30 angle tower on right.

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400kV L6 series towers near Dungeness, Kent. To get the height down below the flight path from Lydd airport, angle towers have been used at reduced span and height and with the earth peak omitted so the whole thing is not much higher than the height to the top conductors. Not a pretty sight though.

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L6 towers at south side of Forth crossing near Alloa on Longannet-Denny lines. River crossing towers appear to be ordinary L6 with high extension. Adjacent angle towers appear to be junction or terminal towers for strength.

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L6 towers at north side of Forth crossing. Kincardine crossing in background.

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L6 towers at north side of Forth crossing. Kincardine crossing in background.

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Crossing where Kincardine-Tealing line ducks under Longannet-Denny lines. One circuit underground, possibly along old railway line, one on gantries.

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Crossing where Kincardine-Tealing line ducks under Longannet-Denny lines, gantries and other terminal.

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Crossing where Kincardine-Tealing line ducks under Longannet-Denny lines, gantries and other terminal.

This site moved from a fixed width to the current layout in 2009. Some older
content such as photo sets may still have a fixed width. However if you
notice any pages which are actually broken, please be kind enough to let me know
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